1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape printer or other tape-shaped label producing device capable of producing a plurality of tape-shaped labels in a predetermined format but each label being printed with different characters.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,152 describes a tape printer including a keyboard, a display, and a print mechanism having a thermal head. Tape-shaped labels printed with characters, such as alphanumeric characters and symbols, can be produced using the tape printer. To produce labels, ink from an ink ribbon is transferred to, for example, 9 mm, 12 mm, or 24 mm wide tapes which serve as the medium for printing. These labels can be adhered to the binding of files and the like to facilitate identifying the contents of the files.
The tape printer can produce labels in sizes suitable for many other uses as well. For example, to organize and put order to a collection of items, such as video cassettes, audio cassettes, or books, labels can be produced to adhere to the individual items of the collection, such as to video cassettes or their cases, to audio cassettes or their cases, or to books. Also, labels can be produced for adhering to personal items such as writing materials like notebooks and pens. Labels for such writing materials could be produced to include such information as item owner's name, school name, school year, and address.
Labels for organizing a library or private collection of books need to show several categories of information, such as book title, author, and purchase date. Layout data which indicates in what arrangement text data will be printed is required to print the text data inputted for each category. The layout data is registered as file data. To print a label, first the user retrieves a display image of the registered layout file and then inputs text data for the subject book using editing operations. Then the registered file and the inputted text data are printed to form a tape-shaped label. These editing end printing operations ere repeated to produce a label for adhering to each of the books in the library or collection.
However, the tape printer can not print a desired label if the desired label requires a larger width tape then the tape housed in the tape cassette loaded in the printing mechanism. This situation arises with labels having a layout for inputting e great deal of text data. When the desired label is too large to print on the tape in the mounted tape cassette, an error message is generated when printing is attempted. On the other hand, when the tape in the mounted tape cassette has a width greater than needed to print the selected label, no error message will be generated, but the user must cut off the excess width of the printed label using scissors. This adds to the operations needed for a user to produce a desired label.
When producing labels for organizing a library or private collection of books, after printing a label for one book, all text data inputted in categories such as the title and author must be erased before inputting text data for the next book. Then the text data for the next book is newly inputted to all the different categories. This complicates editing operations.
It is also conceivable to preregister a master file including only layout information for printing the text data, but without any text data. The master file can be retrieved on the display, and text data inputted while viewing the display. However, such a master file would appear confusing to an operator because which text data should be inputted to which categories and at which data inputting positions would not be apparent.
Also, when a user wants to print a label with a layout he or she has previously created and registered, the label name by itself will not provide the user enough information to tell how wide the label will be when printed out. Because the user will not know how wide the tape in the tape cassette needs to be, he or she will be at a loss to prevent error messages about improper width tapes being mounted in the printing mechanism from being displayed on the display. This can make producing a label a frustrating experience. The user can always use a tape cassette housing the widest tape, but this requires that the user cut off excess tape width of printed labels, which complicates the label producing process and also wastes tape,